Bruce received his BS from Cornell University (1971) and MPhil (1974) and PhD (1976) in geological sciences from Columbia University. During his graduate studies he was Malcolm McKenna's student and benefited greatly from the collections and intellectual environment at the American Museum of Natural History. From 1976-1977 Bruce was a Gibbs Instructor in the Department of Geology & Geophysics at Yale University. Since 1977 he has been a faculty curator and professor at the Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida. He has held sabbatical appointments at Cornell University and the University of Utah, and was a Fulbright Senior Research Fellow in Bolivia in 1994.

Bruce's research has focused primarily on Cenozoic mammals of the New World and integrative geological methods (e.g., paleomagnetism and stable isotopes) to understand their evolution and ecology. More recently he has become interested in Cenozoic sharks. Over the past decade Bruce has been actively involved in field research in Bolivia, Mexico, Panama, Peru and the US (Florida and Nebraska). He is the author of 150 peer-reviewed articles and the 1992 book entitled "Fossil Horses: Systematics, Paleoecology, and Evolution of the Family Equidae" published by Cambridge University Press. Bruce has been the principal supervisor of three dozen MS and PhD students. In recent years he has mostly taught graduate courses on vertebrate paleontology and macroevolution, stable isotope (paleo)ecology, and communicating science to society. He has held administrative positions including chair of his department (1996-1997) and associate director of exhibits & public programs (1996-2004), the latter of which resulted in an abiding interest in the public dimension of science. During 2009-2010 Bruce is on leave from UF as program director in informal science education (Lifelong Learning Cluster) at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Virginia.

Bruce is married to Jeannette Duke MacFadden and has two stepchildren and four grandchildren. He enjoys jogging, watching college football (Go Gators), wine, home improvement, and participating on medical missions to Central and South America as an optometrist's assistant fitting people with glasses.

Photo courtesy of Bruce. J. MacFadden.

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As a follow-up to the September live show and radio broadcast that featured work of some SVP members in the Triassic of Bears Ears National Monument (Indian Creek area), ScienceFriday just posted an extensive multimedia-rich digital story on the research there: https://methods.sciencefriday.com/the-mass-extinction-detectives
The story features quotes from a number of SVP members.
Science Friday also produced an accompanying short a...
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The Natural History Museum in London is asking for your help in preserving and making accessible a major palaeontological attraction in London. The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs are a series of some 30 life-size models of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures in Crystal Palace Park. As well as attracting thousands of visitors a year, they have great historical importance as they date from the 1850s, were designed by Sir Richard Owen a...
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